Design of an inherently fully dynamically balanced aerial manipulator with omnidirectional workspace

Drones are increasingly used nowadays, primarily for visual inspection tasks facilitated by onboard cameras. The field of aerial manipulation tries to expand the capabilities of drones by attaching a manipulator, enabling physical interaction. Unfortunately, the usability of aerial manipulators is hindered by disturbances resulting from the...

Analysis and design of a large-range bistable linear guide with high support stiffness and low parasitic motion

The exploration of compliant mechanisms, especially those providing linear motion, has become a central focus in recent engineering research. These mechanisms, characterized by their monolithic bodies and reduced component interactions, present an attractive alternative to traditional rigid mechanisms, having reduced friction, decreased energy...

Topology Optimization Algorithm for Synthesis of Dynamically Balanced Compliant Mechanisms

As mechanisms become increasingly precise, so becomes the reduction of noise and vibration increasingly important. One method for eliminating vibrations in mechanisms is dynamic balancing. This method prevents vibrations from occurring by designing the mechanism such that the inertial forces and moments of all bodies in the mechanism cancel each...

The Development and Geometric Analysis of an Origami-based Constant-height Walking Locomotion System

Origami-based mechanisms have emerged as a promising solution for developing locomotion systems. Its light-weight nature, scalability, and possibility for 2D monolithic manufacturing makes origami an attractive option for various applications, such as mobile robots and meta-surfaces. While various types of origami-based locomotion exist,...

A Novel Aggregation Framework for the Efficient Integration of Distributed Energy Resources in the Smart Grid

In this paper, we put forward a novel DER aggregation framework, encompassing a multiagent architecture and various types of mechanisms for the effective management and efficient integration of DERs in the Grid. One critical component of our architecture is the Local Flexibility Estimators (LFEs) agents, which are key for offloading the...

Fair Pricing for Time-Flexible Smart Energy Markets

The adoption of new market mechanisms - vital to the better integration of flexible assets - depends on the fairness and nondiscrimination of the pricing rules. We consider a market setting with time-flexible unit energy buyers and sellers, that additionally submit their availability in time. The time-flexibility of the agents allows for...

Fair Mechanisms for Smart Grid Congestion Management

We consider energy systems in the built environment. With the transition to a more sustainable, distributed, and 'smart' energy system, such local grids are undergoing significant changes. Among other developments, the new role of end-users as 'prosumers' - users that can either produce or consume power depending on the situation - is turning...

Design of a Solar Array Drive Mechanism for CubeSats: A scalable, modular and reliable SADM for CubeSats in Low-Earth orbit

CubeSats have risen in popularity since its first launch in the year 2003. The low mass, lower launch cost, lower development cost, possibility for piggyback with larger satellites and lower development time involved compared to larger satellites have opened them to be commercialised by private companies. In contrast to being used for...

ADAPT: A 3 Degrees of Freedom Reconfigurable Force Balanced Parallel Manipulator for Aerial Applications

In this work, we present the ADAPT, a novel reconfigurable force-balanced parallel manipulator with pantograph legs for spatial motions applied underneath a drone. The reconfigurable aspect allows different motion-based 3-DoF operation modes like translational, rotational, mixed, planar without disassembly. For the purpose of this study, the...

Automated Mechanism Design: Introducing Reduced Operator-Space Evolution

Previous research has shown automated robotic mechanism design to be both deceptive (prone to local minima) and rife with linkage problems (having highly interdependent parameters). This results in a barrier to optimization that is unable to be breached by simply applying more iterations and computational power. The research also indicates that...

Three-step method to design the preload of geometries to create spatial large range of motion zero-stiffness compliant mechanisms

Design of a reversible growth-from-the-tip device following a complex trajectory: An innovative everting chains principle

Background: Accessing targets through complex trajectories with multiple curves in series, remains challenging today in many application fields, like surgery, the Fukushima disaster, maintenance of complex tube networks, mining and space operations. Current steerable devices require control of an extensive amount of segments, while moving as a...

Truthful Trading in Local Energy Markets

With the increasing share of renewable and thus volatile distributed generation<br/>worldwide, small-scale energy producers, prosumers and consumers will become more and more involved in the overall energy system. These small-scale actors were formerly excluded from the energy market, as legislative restrictions about generation size and legal...

Combined Heat and Power Markets by Double-Sided Auction Mechanisms

In order to reduce CO2 emissions, energy systems using different energy carriers (e.g., heat and power) are becoming more intertwined and integrated. However, coordination between non-cooperative participants of these systems in the combined heat and power domain has been limited to single-sided auctions with one centralised seller. In this...

Incentivizing Seeding In BitTorrent - Indirect Interaction as an Incentive to Seed

BitTorrent has turned into the most popular P2P file sharing protocol and is used for various purposes such as Video on demand and Media Streaming. The fundamental problem with P2P networks in general is that quality of service highly depends on altruistic resource sharing by participating peers. Many peers freeride on the good intentions of...